20 Recent Movie Twists That Fell Completely Flat
12. Smile 2 - It's A Hallucination
Headlined by a genuinely Oscar-worthy performance from Naomi Scott, Smile 2 was a pleasantly surprising sequel that used its ghoulish spooks to examine the dark side of fame, a topic that's perhaps even more relevant today than it's ever been. Nonetheless, it was one of those horror movies that lost control of itself by the end - not unlike its predecessor, actually.
Much like with the first film, Smile 2's final stretch was a never-ending mish-mash of baffling hallucinations where it was never at all clear what was real, what wasn't or what the rules of this story world are. With nothing to ground things, it all started to feel rather jumbled and generalized.
Eventually, during an attempt to stop her heart before reviving herself, Skye suddenly finds herself performing on stage and it's clear that a fair amount of what just transpired was a hallucination, making a large amount of the movie's final act feel superfluous. One of the worst crimes a storyteller can commit is 'It was all a dream' and that is, to an extent, something this movie is guilty of.
Still, the very final scene of the movie - Skye kills herself on stage and passes the curse on to thousands of concertgoers - is a lot better and reaffirms this as an overall successful horror flick that sets up one hell of a tantalizing Smile 3. Still, writer-director Parker Finn needs to do a different ending next time.